I meant to write this up a week or two ago, but you know how the holidays can be. Anyway, when last I left you, Movie Saturday had just died an ignoble death, born of our own hubris. This was early 2005. A few months after that, the core group of participants who lived together (Luke, Shawn, Me, and Jeff, if you still want to count him at this stage) moved out of the Superhouse and spread across the Denver Metro area. I think this was probably the main reason why the post-Movie Saturday projects didn’t materialize like I expected – life was marching on for everyone and getting in the way.
All was not lost, though. The next summer, Luke and Rose announced their plans to move out of state, and this provided the catalyst we needed to make one last project with them before they were gone. This turned out to be “A Month, and Change,” which I may talk about in more detail somewhere down the line. It was a forty-minute (give or take) project starring Bruce, Trevor, and Cate, a new addition. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how snide you’re feeling), it’s not available online, so I can’t link to it.
“A Month, and Change” fell victim to the same post-production failings as my previous full-length movie, “The Unwritten Rule.” As a result, it took nearly an entire year before it was completed and screened. This meant that no one was willing to spend time on another movie during that entire period, so there were no more projects throughout 2007.
In early 2008, Rachel and I began discussing the idea of putting together another short, something a bit less ambitious than “A Month, and Change.” This was our first ground-up screenwriting collaboration, and, to my amazement, it worked out pretty well. The project came together very quickly, and we wound up with Intuition (which is available online).
That was eleven months ago, now, and was the last movie production I’ve been involved with. Rachel and I did put together another script afterward, a longer one, which we didn’t manage to get into production. I’m still hopeful that something might come of it, though. Also, over the holiday, I met with some old friends (including Movie Saturday veteran Mavi Graves) who reignited that creative spark, and we’ve started tentatively discussing a new project for this summer. Will it materialize? Who knows. History suggests it won’t, but I’ve always found history to be kind of a condescending jackass. There are always possibilities.
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Now that I’ve gone back through all of Movie Saturday, and seen just how wide a range of quality we had, I’d like to identify my favorites. If you haven’t checked out Movie Saturday yet, and don’t want to commit the time to watching the whole thing, you’d be safe with any of the following:
THE TOP FIVE MOVIE SATURDAYS, IN REVERSE ORDER
5. Peephole
When I first started writing about Movie Saturday, I would not have expected Peephole to make the top five (I probably would have picked “The Lamp” in its place). The years have softened my disappointments with it, however, and the things I like are just as good, so in it goes. As an interesting side note, since I put these movies up on Vimeo, Peephole has had more than fifteen times as many views as any other Movie Saturday, and shows no signs of slowing down.
4. Because it was Dead
This one is near and dear to my heart because it was the first, and it proved to me that we were capable of doing something worthwhile. There are some technical issues, particularly with the sound, that keep it from placing higher, but it’s still a wonderful way to spend four minutes.
3. Try Again
As I explained in the original write-up, this is the one where I felt every department contributed something vital, and the one with the strongest vibe. Watching it just feels good.
2. Shadow
It’s short, it’s sweet, it’s simple. Maybe we work better without a script.
1. Safety in Numbers
This is our most professional looking production, and certainly my strongest script. Everything just came together on this one. And how can you miss out on the movie so good it killed Movie Saturday?
I know, I know, clearly I have some sort of bias, since three of my top five are movies that I directed, and one of the other two is one that I wrote. Well, if anyone has a better list, I’d like to see it. Hell, if anyone has a worse list, I’d like to see it.
Seriously, though. I really do want to hear what anyone else out there thinks is the best (or worst, if you prefer) of our movies. Especially any of you who helped make them.
And speaking of the worst, if anyone was wondering, my pick for the worst Movie Saturday is “What You Want!!”, which I also directed. Hmmph. Bias my sine function.
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